Przemysław Czarnek announced the figure at a conference for Poland’s top regional officials in the eastern town of Kazimierz Dolny on Wednesday, state news agency PAP reported.
EUR 205 mln for education of Ukrainian children
The education minister said: “From March until today, we have transferred PLN 980 million (EUR 205 million) million to local governments.”
"That's nearly PLN 1 billion to cover the costs of education for Ukrainian children in Poland," he added.
"Not one euro of these funds came from our partners in the European Union,” Czarnek stated.
"We will keep financing the education of Ukrainian children in Polish schools, because this is our sacred duty,” he vowed.
He added: “We appeal to EU institutions not to hamper our efforts and not to block the transfer of those EU funds that we are owed, especially during wartime.”
Over EUR 10.5 mln for textbooks in Ukrainian
Czarnek announced that a further sum, "in excess of PLN 50 million" (EUR 10.5 million), would be allocated for textbooks in the Ukrainian language.
According to the education minister, the wave of refugees from Ukraine who have settled in Poland includes “some 700,000 school-age children who require education and nurturing care.”
Czarnek said the authorities must also make sure that "the arrival of Ukrainian pupils does not create any disturbance” in the education of Polish children.
'No problems in relations between Poles and Ukrainians'
He stressed that “although 200,000 children [from Ukraine] have entered the Polish system in a short period of time, and most of them attend classes alongside Polish pupils, no part of Poland has reported any problems in the relations between Poles and Ukrainians.”
This demonstrates that “the Polish state and the Polish nation are maintaining their attitude of tolerance,” Czarnek said, adding that he was "proud of the Polish children, parents and teachers."
Preparatory classes
Czarnek added that in the event of a further influx of child refugees from Ukraine, “government funding remains available for preparatory classes.”
These classes provide Ukrainian children who don’t speak Polish with an opportunity to learn the language, before joining regular school classes, reporters were told.
Czarnek also declared that there were “no teacher shortages" and that Polish schools were able to “continue to admit Ukrainian children.”
Wednesday was day 210 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, wnp.pl